HYDERABAD: An 8-year-old student was allegedly thrashed by a teacher of Oxford Grammar School in Hyderabad's Himayathnagar area for not tying her hair properly. Authorities have suspended the teacher.The incident came to light after the parents of the class IV student lodged a complaint with the Narayanguda police on Saturday, accusing the science teacher, Sita Lakshmi, of thrashing their daughter. The parents also alleged that teachers often subjected children to corporal punishment . The police registered the case against the management under the Juvenile Justice Act."My little girl has been punished several times in the past. When we approached the school management for the first time, they assured us that would organise counselling sessions for teachers so that such incidents were not repeated. When she was punished again in October 2017, the school tried to protect themselves saying that the teacher is new and is unaware of the school's stand against corporal punishment," said Nandini B, mother of the Class 4 student."This time when it happened, we had enough. They can't just keep punishing our girl for silly reasons and expect us to keep silent every time," she added.The school authorities claimed that the parents were exaggerating the issue, adding that Lakshmi has been suspended."The parents are simply blowing the issue out of proportion," said Fahmida, headmaster, SSC wing, Oxford Grammar School.She said that the management has already enquired about the incident from the students present in class during that time, and found that the punishment meted out to her was not "severe" as the mother claimed.Child rights activists, meanwhile, demanded that the teacher should be taken into police custody as punishing a child is an offence.

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